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Purple part 4: Deadly Violet
by Korogi
Murasaki's chambers sat in almost complete ruin, an infestation
of wild Makai vines and leaves twisted and imbedded into every corner and
space in the vast, white-marble room. It was like a great jungle
had suddenly exploded in the area, squeezing all it could throughout the
chambers before the wines and roots broke out through windows and doors.
Yo-mawari's seedling had done it's solemn duty....
"...k'so..."
The vine jungle seemed to heave it's own curse, a small,
pained statement of utter frustration fluffing the leaves, even so as a
stiff breeze kicked in through the broken walls of the room, rustling the
leaves about on their perches. No signs of the pure-white canopied
bed were left, only the greenery of the Makai vines, encompasing everything
in fresh, summer hue.
But down the trunk of one of the vines, a thick stream
of deep crimson rolled and spilled, etching it's own path through the branches
and leaves until it began to patter to the broken marble floor beneath.
Blood. It slowly began to pool, a warm concoction on the cold floors
below from a source somewhere above. "That youko bastard..." the
voice thinly cursed, a ruffling of leaves breaking through the silence
that had come in with the wines.
A streak of brilliant purple hair lept down to place beside
the small pool of blood at the base of the vine. A hand came down
roughly to brace the figure against the floor, a thick, red river of blood
flowing out through the thin, pale fingers to seep into the pool beside
them.
Murasaki growled lowly to herself as he visciously ripped
a piece of her layered white dress off. A large gash laid completely
open on her upper bicept, completely exposing muscle and bone to the cool
air of the room around her. Thick masses of tissue and blood glopped
at the wound's opening as she began to swiftly tie the strip of cloth to
the damage, closing it as best as she could to keep her bleeding down.
When the blue-haired little spirit guide had ground that
seedling into her shoulder, Murasaki had suspected something was up from
the start. Out of all good conscious, she had dug the seed from her
shoulder and tossed it on the bed beside here - only seconds before the
you-ki had ignighted it into the tangled mass that now replaced her bedroom.
The explosion of roots had caught her squarely in the upper arm, nearly
ripping the limb completely from her body in the process. Although
the pain of the wound throbed throughout her body, the only thing occupying
her mind now was revenge. Revenge on a certain little spirit guide
named Botan for interupting her fun, destroying her room and almost killing
her.
"I'm going to track down that blue-haired little
bitch... and come hell or high water she'll pay for this! By the gods...
I swear you'll pay for this!!"
"Little boy..." Kagayaku snorted, brushing at one
of the many dapples of blood that polka-dotted her dress. "I'm not
afraid of a small little fire demon. So, to save time and your life,
just get the hell out of my way. All I wanted was Kurama... "
"Shut up, you," Hiei growled back, the heat of the Kokoryuha
still imbeded on his arm, radiating throughout the room. Flickers
of heat-warped air rose between the two to shimmer thair vision, Hiei carefully
guarding the door to the hall behind him. He could still sense the
small twinges of Yukina and Kurama's ki in the castle, winding quickly
through the halls as an exit was trying to be quickly found.
"Little boy, do you think that you.. a man... could possibly
posse any satisfaction to another man? You're just a worthless cause
to his suffering, adding into his pain with every second you stay with
him."
"I said shut up!" Hiei crouched down closer to the
ground, sheething the double-edged katana into it's scabbard as the purple
flames of the Kokoryuha began to strengthen and threaten to overwhelm his
control.
"Dear little boy..."
"Will you just shut up before I rip your tongue out?"
"Seems I've struck a nerve!" Kagayaku chuckled lowly
to herself, smiling seductively down to the fire demon. "Come now,
just think about things for a minute here. Kurama is a man... you're
a man. There can be no attraction between the two of you. He's
best to be left with me..."
"So you can beat and torture him beyond his limits?" Hiei
snarled loudly, the black tatoo begining to slowly unwind from about his
arm. "It doesn't matter if I'm a man or not... Kurama has feelings
for me and that's all I need."
Kagayaku twirled around once in place, bellowing the layered
dress out around her, chuckling. "Listen to yourself! You actually
believe the man loves you! Pathetic!"
"I'll show you pathetic..." Hiei growled, the surprising
calmness in his voice echoing through the calculating, deadly force hidden
behind his eyes. The red seeing eyes seemed to burn with their own
fire, echoed above by the sickly white-green glow of the jagan perched
on his forehead, furiously keeping the Kokoryuha under ward as long as
hiei's strength would allow. "I have no compassion for any of your
race..."
"Ah yes, but remember... if you unleash your powers on
me here, you too will be killed!"
"That's what you think... I've absorbed my own techniques
time and time over..."
The yosei smirked, taping the bamboo lash she still caried
lightly on the palm of her hand. "Confident little bastard aren't
you?"
The small head of the black dragon tatoo twisted around
through the air, the last of the black, inky figure removing itself from
the arm of the Koorime fire demon before her. Like an obediant guard
dog, it snarled and hissed back at the yosei, continuing to wind itself
about, never leaving the solitude of Hiei's arm. The youkai master
ran a finger lightly over the head of the smoky, black figure, sparking
off another bout of snarling and hissing from the little, red-eyed dragon,
Hiei glaring menacingly back to the yosei.
Kagayaku took a defensive step back when both pairs of
red eyes laid upon her, each as deadly as the other. Perhaps she
had bitten off more than she could chew with this little one? Despite
the youkai's small size, he harbored a great deal of energy, the surrounding
you-ki sparking and rising quickly as the black dragon slithered through
the air and about Hiei's arm and hands, like a snake charmer would a python.
"This is your last breath, woman. Enjoy it while
you can. I'd be happy to visit you again in Yomatsu before you were
sent to Hell..."
Kurama's head flopped like a rag-doll's as Kuwabara bound
down the hall of the castle, carying the limb, beaten figure tightly in
his arms. Blood still seeped from thatch-work wounds all over Kurama's
face and chest, running over his arms and down to rip through the fabric
of his silk, white pants. Unconsciousness had been mercilessly tugging
on his mind, intensifying wounds and the severe concussion that still hung
through Kurama's head.
As if the tall man could sense Kurama's pain, Kuwabara
shifted his burden, rolling Kurama's head up to lay on Kuwabara's thin
shoulder, resting against the fabric of the tatered, blue school uniform.
Before him, Shizuru and Yukina lead the way, leading him
and his burden through the dizzying mazework of cooridors and doorways,
trying to find their way from the confines of the yosei home.
"This is getting hopeless," Shizuru huffed before Kuwabara
as she ran in stride with Yukina. "All these halls look the same..."
"We need someone to guide us out," Yukina panted lightly
beside her.
"Yukina-chan... that's an excellent idea! I bet
if we can just find one of those damned fairies..."
The group slid around another corner... right into the
path of a small child yosei, bouncing a small ball against the wall.
The little girl seemed almost oblivious to the newcomers, giggling lightly
to herself as she bounced the ball. Everything seemed perfectly fine
until a tall shadow loomed beside her.
Slowly, the young yosei turned her head, large wild pink
eyes laying on the tall form of Shizuru towering above her, casting a menacing
shadow onto the child.
"Little girl..." Shizuru spoke softly.
Without any heasitation, the young child screamed loudly,
dropping her ball to run, only to be caught quickly by Shizuru's strong
grip.
"Listen!" she yelled above the screaming, trying to calm
the child down. "Just tell us how to get out of here..."
The child screemed an ear-splitting scream, crumbling
to the floor in a tight ball, covering her face with her hands.
"Geeze, 'neechan," Kuwabara snorted. "You don't
know how to handle children!"
"Oh, and YOU do, Kazu-chan?"
Kuwabara puffed his chest out as he glanced to Yukina,
and knelt to the ground, gently laying Kurama's nearly unsonscious body
on the floor. Gently, as carefully as he could, Kuwabara laid the
young man out before stepping over him to shoo his sister from the screaming
kid. "Oi, little girl," he spoke softly, running a hand over her
soft, blonde hair.
The little body shook from the sobs but stopped screaming, the
large, shaking pink eyes peeking out from behind her hands. They
searched up to Kuwabara's face and sniffed back a fresh batch of tears,
still cowering down at the floor.
"Little girl, can you tell us how to get out of here?"
The little yosei sniffed again, skooting back under Kuwabara's
shadow, putting his large frame between her and Shizuru. A small
hand lifted to the wall, a glimmering sequence of yellow arrows etching
through on the white marble hall.
"Follow the arrows?" Kuwabara asked.
The little yosei noded slowly before taking up her ball
and running down the hall, dissappearing.
"Hmph.. see?" Kuwabara snorted vainly, turning to
carefully lift Kurama's body back into his strong arms. "I just naturally
have a way with children, Shizuru!"
"Yeah right... you still ARE a child, Kazu!"
"HEY!" he screateched.
"Baka, shut up!" she hissed, swatting him on the arm and
pointing to Kurama.
The human body of Minamino Shuuichi was almost unrecognisable
through the heavy lashing and beating he had suffered. His face and
eyelids were swollen oddly red and puffy, contorting his perfect gentle
face to that of an almost hideous-looking monster, taking the place of
their friend. The concusion he had suffered had begun to affect him,
turning the tender skin around his eyes to a deep blue, almost black in
parts from his brutalization. They had to get him help fast, or get
him to a safe enough location where Yukina could properly tend to his wounds.
Yusuke and Keiko rushed quickly through the castle halls,
the little blue spirit pet fluttering along behind them, it's little blue
ears flapping in a pace to keep up.
"Yusuke..." Keiko huffed, tugging on him to slow down.
"We have to rest..."
"No time for that!" Yusuke snorted, swatting at
Puu-chan as he flew about to rest on top of Yusuke's head. "If I
know Hiei well enough, he's got Kurama already... and Botan's most certainly
found Koenma. We just need to get the hell out of here before anything
else happens!"
"Just... let me rest a bit."
"Geeze, have you been eatting too much? You're so
out of shape...."
"BAKA! Shut up before I slap you!" Keiko twisted
up to her feet...
Yusuke's eyes widened suddenly, a swift arm reaching out
to herd Keiko behind him roughly, little Puu nearly toppling off the top
of Yusuke's head in the process. Snarling at them down the hall was
one of the yosei, a taller one with flowing purple hair that expertly framed
her face and shoulders. She clutched at a tight band of blood-soaked
cloth on her arm tightly, stepping slowly and easily forward towards them.
"That's one of them, isn't it?" Keiko whispered,
peeking over Yusuke's shoulder as Puu fluttered down to rest in her arms.
"Murasaki..."
The yosei snarled again, stepping up her pace quickly
down the hall. "Human bastards, you'll all pay for this," the female
voice snarled, placing even more deadly force behind those words than Yusuke
had ever heard Hiei manage.
Keiko took a deep breath, gathering herself as she lept
from behind Yusuke. These yosei were afraid of outsider women, she
could use this to her advantage.
"Keiko!! You idiot, come back here!"
Keiko stumbled down the hall a ways to confront the yosei,
cuddling Puu up to her chest as she did. "You hold it right there!"
"Silence woman!!"
Yusuke watched in horror as the yosei lept forward, seemingly
uneffected by Keiko's feminine presence. Murasaki reached out with
her good arm and grabbed the colar of Keiko's dress, easily flinging her
behind and down the hall to rocket down towards the far wall.
"KEIKO!!!"
